win2k "the system could not log you on"

[malagash]

I have a standalone unit that was working fine yesterday but when turned on this morning I get the W2K logon window. I have never had to log in before, as I just set it to boot into the user. It's not part of a domain.

It is now asking for a UN and PW which I never set up when I installed W2K and of course cannot provide to let me in.
I haev tried Administrator, Admin (upper and lower case), my name... my dog's name... nothing, I cannot get into the machine.

Any help is appreciated

 

[lb63640]

Check at the login screen and see if you have a drop down choice that says something like 'THIS COMPUTER' and see what happens.

 

[malagash]

No, there is not such reference. Only:
Username
Password
Log in usning Dial up connection
OK Cancel Shutdown Options<<

Contracting Options only closes off the Log in usning Dial up connection choice

 

[electronicsfreak]

Sounds like you were infected with a trojan, and they changed the account information on you. My advice take the drive out, put it in another machine running windows 2000 and scan it. I wouldnt do xp as last time I took a drive with a partition made by xp that was ntfs 2000 corrupted it. Not sure if windows xp would do the same thing. So for safe keeping, put it on another windows 2000 machine and do a scan, then take ownership of the drive and change the information.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268019

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[IHateXP]

If you take the HDD out of the computer you can't access

Slave it to a PC you have admin access

Search in system32 for files names called sam, (on the slave drive)

Rename them,

Refit the drive back into the PC

Turn back on (Windows then recreates the sam file)

Log in as administrator and no password/blank password.

If that fails you can reverse the renaming of the sam file

Alternatively use ERD Commander and the locksmith utility

Be aware all accounts will be lost during the first process

This works on NT4, Windows2K and XP

TTFN,

TC

 

[cdogg]

You only see the dropdown choice with the "computer name (This Computer)" if the PC is a member of a domain. If it isn't (as it appears in your case), then you won't see it. That just means that you are always logging in locally.

Before you try the steps in the last post, try logging in with Administrator again leaving the password blank (which is the default unless you set one).

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[malagash]

Thanks guys. I was able to find that there were actually two accounts on the machine.
1 - the user's account which IS pw protected and
2 - a limited user's account which is not protected.

(why don't people write things down somewhere?)

I returned the unit to the customer for the moment so she could use it on the limited account but will retreive it and try IHXP's suggestion.